Deadly Secrets
by Qille
Summary: Pedro has a secret: he can't swim. He didn't know how much this would affect his life, and he didn't know it would endanger the life of his best friend, Nico. Rated T for blood and because I'm paranoid.


_A/N: I just saw Rio today, and I've had this story in my mind even before the movie came out. So here it is! Also, I kinda figured that Pedro wouldn't be able to swim because of his build, so that's my reason behind this._

**Wet Secrets**

It started out with a blistering hot summer day. The summers in Rio were normally hot, but this was just crazy. Most of the other birds were either sitting at the edge of the pond, flying above the water's surface, or even swimming. Even some of the birds that didn't normally swim were splashing around in the water. Everyone seemed to be having a great time. Except for one.

Pedro sat in a tree overlooking the pond and all the other birds. It was sweltering hot, but he didn't dare fly down to the pond to cool off, for one simple reason: he couldn't swim. No matter how hard he tried, he always sank like a rock.

Normally, whenever it was hot like this, he would just retreat to the hollow of his tree, where it was normally cool enough for comfort. But today, it was so hot that he was driven outside, where at least the semi-cool breeze could reach him.

Pedro sighed. _I wish I could swim,_ he thought. _Nico makes it look so easy... Speaking of Nico, where is he?_

Pedro scanned the surface of the pond below, but he couldn't spot the little yellow canary. Everyone else was down there; Jewel was floating on her back in the water with her three children flying above her, and Blu and Rafael were next to the water talking about something. But Nico was nowhere to be found.

"Where did you go?" Pedro muttered to himself.

"Right behind you," said a voice from right behind Pedro.

Pedro let out a squeak and whipped around, almost falling off his branch. Nico was sitting there right behind him, smiling and soaking wet. "Nico! When did you get up here?"

"About 10 seconds ago," he said, taking off his bottlecap hat and wiping some of the water off of it. He smiled mischievously up at Pedro. "Wanna go swimming?"

"_No_, I do _not_ wanna go swimming," exclaimed Pedro, crossing his wings over his chest.

Nico sighed, putting his cap back on. "Why not?" he asked, although he already knew the answer.

"You know why," snapped Pedro. He was sick of Nico trying to make him swim every time it got hot like this. Nico knew that Pedro couldn't swim; he had known ever since they were little, when Nico had to save Pedro from drowning in a bird bath.

"Well, you'll never learn if you never try," exclaimed Nico, standing up straight and trying to look taller, crossing his wings over his chest. Pedro just rolled his eyes and turned around, looking back down at the pond. Nico fluttered up and stood beside him.

"C'mon, man, Blu learned to fly, so why can't you learn to swim?" asked Nico.

Pedro rolled his eyes again. "There's a big difference between flying and swimming. I'll probably never even _need_ to swim, so why should I bother learning?"

"Well, it couldn't hurt," exclaimed Nico.

"I could drown!"

"We'll start somewhere shallow. Besides, ya never know if you'll need to swim or not, but it's better to be safe than sorry!"

"How 'bout this," snapped Pedro, reaching the end of his patience. "I'll learn to swim if you get over your cl-"

"_Don't you dare! Don't even go there,_" growled Nico, spinning around and jabbing Pedro in the chest. Pedro was shocked. He had never seen Nico so angry. It was probably a good thing Nico had interrupted him; if Pedro had finished that sentence, then he'd never be able to forgive himself for stooping so low. Nico _was_ just trying to help, after all.

Pedro slouched, defeated. "Sorry," he whispered, looking away.

Nico looked away too. "S'okay."

After a long moment of awkward silence, Nico said: "I'd better go." He crouched to jump off the branch, but Pedro stopped him.

"Nico, wait."

Nico stopped and turned around. "What?"

"Would you... teach me how to swim?" Pedro asked awkwardly.

Nico just stared at him for a while before smiling and saying: "I thought you'd never ask! C'mon, let's go!"

Nico jumped off the branch, followed by Pedro. They flew down to the crowded edge of the lake. Pedro had to admit, it was much cooler down here than it was in the tree.

"Ready?" asked Nico, smiling excitedly.

"Wait wait wait wait! Here?" asked Pedro, looking around at all the other birds that would be there to watch him fail.

"Why not?" asked Nico, shrugging.

"Could we start somewhere a little less... public?" asked Pedro, glancing around at some of the other birds.

Nico sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's not like you're gonna fail epically. You'll be fine!" He looked at Pedro's nervous face. "Well, maybe we _should_ start somewhere less crowded."

"Good idea!" exclaimed Pedro, relieved that he wouldn't have to fail in front of everyone.

Just as they were about to take off and find a more secluded location to begin Pedro's training, Blu called out to them.

"Hey guys, don't go yet! I gotta tell you something!" he called.

Nico and Pedro flew over to where Blu and Rafael were standing.

"What's up?" Pedro asked.

"We need your help with something," Blu explained. "Luiz told us he saw some marmosets break into a restaurant in town last night. Could you guys go check it out?"

"Hey, no problem," said Nico. "We were headin' into town anyway."

"Cool, thanks," said Blu. He turned around, yelped, and then flew off as fast as he could. Nico and Pedro looked for what had scared Blu, but all they saw was one of Rafael's sons, who had a feather in his mouth.

"Uh, I ain't liking the way that kid's lookin' at me," whispered Pedro, taking a step away from the kid.

"Me either," whispered Nico. The little Toucan made a lunge for them, and they both screamed and jumped into the air, flying away as fast as they could.

Rafael looked at his son. "We still need to get you tested."

**xxx**

"Let me get this straight," said Pedro. "They only took spoons?"

"I think I saw one of them carrying a knife," said Luiz.

"How many were there?" asked Nico.

Luiz thought for a minute, licking his chops. "Uh... three."

"Just three?" asked Nico. "Did you notice anything about them, like what they looked like?"

"Well, not really. It was kinda dark, but I did notice that one of them had a weird scar, right here," said Luiz, pointing to a spot above his nose and between his eyes.

"Was Mauro with them?" asked Pedro.

"Nope," said Luiz.

Pedro looked at Nico. Nico just shrugged.

"Uh, thanks Luiz," said Pedro.

"No problem," said the bulldog. With that, he turned and ran off in the direction of his garage.

Pedro turned to Nico. "What do you think?"

"I don't know," shrugged Nico. "They didn't take any forks, and they only took one knife, but I really have no idea."

"I bet they don't have any idea either," grumbled Pedro.

Nico shrugged. He took off into the air with Pedro right behind him. However, instead of heading back to the rainforest, Nico flew in a different direction.

"Uh, Nico, where are we going?"

"To give you your first swimming lesson," answered Nico.

"Oh," gulped Pedro. He looked around and spotted dark clouds in the distance. "I think it's gonna storm soon. Maybe we should wait until next week."

"No way man. I ain't letting you chicken out!" exclaimed Nico. "Besides..." Nico looked at the storm clouds gathering off the coast. "...I'd say we've got a few hours until that storm hits, and by then we can be back in the tree."

Pedro just shook his head. "So seriously, where _are_ we going?"

"Here," said Nico, swooping down towards a broken fountain. The top tier of the fountain would make a perfect shallow pool.

Nico jumped into the water, splashing around with ease. Pedro, on the other hand, stood uncertainly on the edge. Nico stopped splashing and relaxed, floating on his back. "Why don't you start by getting _in_ the water."

Pedro gulped, and then slowly walked forward, going in up to his wings. "I'm in. What now?"

Nico drifted over to Pedro and stood upright. Even though the water in this spot only came up to Pedro's wings, it came up to Nico's neck, and this wasn't even as deep as it got. "Just relax and lay back. Trust me, you'll float."

Pedro gulped again, then slowly laid back. The second his feet left the cement fountain, he found himself underwater. As he put his feet back on the bottom and stood up, one thought occurred to him. _This is going to be a long day._

**xxx**

"Okay, now put your head back... just relax... like that... good. See, you're floating!" exclaimed Nico. After a moment, he said: "You should probably breathe."

Pedro sucked in a breath of air, having been holding his breath. This time, he didn't sink to the bottom again. "I'm floating!" he exclaimed. After a minute, he stood up.

"Yeah, it took you half an hour, but you can finally float on your own," said Nico, looking kinda tired. "Ready to call it a day?"

"Yeah," said Pedro, still excited at this achievement. With a few more lessons, he would be able to actually truly swim!

Nico and Pedro jumped out of the water and sat on the edge, waiting for their feathers to dry. Pedro was happily humming to himself, his eyes closed as he soaked up the sun's rays. Nico, however, was focused on the storm clouds they had seen earlier. It was even hotter and more humid than before, and the clouds looked even darker and more ominous. Despite the heat, Nico shuddered.

"Pedro?"

"Hm?"

"I think we should go now," said Nico nervously.

"Why?" asked Pedro, opening his eyes. He saw the nervous look on his friend's face, then he looked to where Nico was looking and saw the clouds. "Oh."

Nico and Pedro jumped into the air and flew off towards the forest. They were almost to the trees when the wind picked up. Nico, being so light, was almost thrown into a tree.

Once they reached the trees, it was only a five minute flight to their tree. However, as they were flying, they both noticed that there wasn't another animal in sight. When they were a minute away from safety, the heavens opened up and the rain came thundering through the leaves.

The second it started raining, Pedro lost sight of Nico. "NICO!" he called out.

"Pedro! Over here!" came a small voice from a few feet in front of Pedro. Pedro flew forward and almost ran right into the tree that Nico was crouching in.

"Did you see where we were before it started raining?" Pedro asked.

"Y-yeah," stuttered Nico. "Right below us is the pond, and right across from us is our tree."

"Let's just wait 'til the rain lets up, then we'll get out of here," said Pedro.

"Sorry, but I can't let that happen," said a voice from behind them. Nico and Pedro whipped around to see three marmosets, two of them holding spoons and the third one holding a knife.

All three of them looked way two familiar. The last time they had seen the two with the spoons, they were covered in berry juice. The one with the knife had a scar on the bridge of his nose. The scar matched the exact pattern of the edge of Nico's cap. This was the monkey that had taken a face full of Nico's cap. All three looked murderous.

The two with the spoons attacked first. Nico and Pedro were still in shock from the sudden appearance of the monkeys, so they didn't react quick enough to defend themselves. One of the spoon marmosets hit Nico on the side of his head, where his cap didn't protect. The other one hit Pedro in the stomach. Pedro doubled over, gasping for breath. He heard Nico scream, and looked over just in time to see Nico fall from the branch, down into the pond.

Before Pedro could even shout for Nico, he heard an evil laugh. Pedro looked up and saw the marmoset holding the knife. A flash of lightning illuminated everything, and in that split second, Pedro saw that the knife was already covered in blood.

Just as scar-face brought the knife down towards Pedro, a sudden gust of wind snapped the end of the branch Pedro was crouching on, and Pedro fell with the branch, leaving the marmosets in the tree.

The force of hitting the water knocked the breath out of Pedro. Luckily, Pedro was still holding onto the branch. He climbed up on top of the branch and looked around for Nico.

"NICO!" he shouted. There was no response. The water was churning violently, and the rain and clouds blocked out the light, limiting Pedro's view. "NICO!" he called again, more frantically.

Suddenly, a flash of lightning illuminated the surrounding water, and Pedro spotted something that stopped his heart and made his blood run cold. Nico's bottlecap was floating upside-down in the water. Pedro grabbed it and noticed something that almost made him pass out: the cap was covered in blood.

"**NICO!**" cried Pedro at the top of his lungs. He looked down into the dark water. Maybe...

Pedro put the bottlecap on the branch he was clinging to, gathered up his willpower, took a deep breath, and dove into the cold water.

Underwater, it was calm and almost peaceful. It was also dark. Pedro was blind until the lightning lit up the sky again. In that moment, Pedro saw a still thin figure, slowly sinking to the bottom of the pond. Nico!

Pedro swam down and grabbed Nico's wing. That was when he noticed that the water was too warm, and too dark. Then he realized that it was blood. Nico was wounded.

Pedro gripped Nico's wing even harder, and swam towards the surface. When he broke the surface, he gasped for air, making sure he kept Nico's head above the water.

He spotted the branch about a few feet away from them, but for a bird who was a few inches tall, it seemed like a mile away. Pedro shook his head, but none the less, he kicked and splashed his way over to the branch. He gently pulled Nico onto the branch, but stayed in the water himself. Grabbing the branch with his feet, he swam towards shore. It didn't even occur to him that he was swimming on his own.

The second they reached the shore, Pedro lifted Nico off the branch, and carried him onto the shore, almost forgetting Nico's bottlecap.

On shore, Pedro laid Nico under a tree, making sure that he was as shielded from the rain as he could be. There was a large cut on Nico's chest from where the crazed marmoset had stabbed him. It wasn't that deep, but it was still bleeding.

That was when Pedro noticed that Nico wasn't breathing. Quickly, Pedro sat him up, leaning him against the tree. A second later, Nico started coughing violently, hacking up the water he had swallowed. Pedro didn't fail to notice that there was some blood mixed in with the water.

Pedro looked around. There was nobody. Looking up, Pedro recognized the tree that they were under.

"Blu!" he called. "BLU!"

A few seconds passed before Pedro saw Blu stick his head out of the hole in the tree where he lived with his family. He could tell that Blu was wondering what was going on, and it took Blu a second to realize that his friends needed help.

Blu flew down and landed right beside Pedro. "What happened?"

"W-w-we were attacked b-by m-m-monkeys! The ones t-that b-broke into the r-restaurant," stuttered Pedro.

"I'll get the whole story later. We gotta get him some help," said Blu, looking at Nico. With Pedro's help, Nico was lifted onto Blu's back, and Blu and Pedro took off, but not before Pedro grabbed Nico's bottlecap.

They went to the only place they knew that could save Nico...

**xxx**

Nico slowly opened his eyes. He had no idea where he was, but it was warm and well lit. Looking around, he realized he was in the bird sanctuary, the one that Linda owned. He was lying on a warm bed that almost perfectly fit his size.

_What am I doing here,_ he wondered. He tried to sit up, but a sharp pain in his chest stopped him. Nico looked down and was surprised to find his tiny chest covered in bandages. _What happened?_

"Feeling any better?" came a voice from beside Nico's bed. Nico looked up to see Pedro.

"I'll probably feel better once you tell me what happened," moaned Nico. Even talking made him sore. "I remember flying back to the tree, but then it started raining. That's it."

Pedro bit his tongue, then filled Nico in on the fight and how he and Blu had brought him here for help.

"So, you really swam?" asked Nico in a tired voice. Pedro nodded proudly. But then his smile fell.

"Now it's your turn."

"My turn for what?" moaned Nico.

"It's your turn to face your fear."

"Can't I wait until I can move again?"

Pedro smiled sadly. "Yeah. And then you can let me help you get rid of your claustrophobia."

Nico groaned, then smiled. "Deal."

**The End**

_A/N: What did you think? Oh, and there will be another one-shot on how Pedro helps Nico overcome his claustrophobia, and I will even explain WHY Nico has claustrophobia. And yes, I do suffer from SFCMD (Severe Favorite Character Mutilation Disorder). Rio is awesome! =D_


End file.
